REEL STORY: George Foreman’s agonizing road to redemption

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To see George Foreman at the height of his fistic powers was to witness a lean, mean Adonis.

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Capable of tearing nearly any man on the planet to pieces.

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Not the jolly, bald man in the apron shilling his home grill.

The two-time heavyweight champ won an Olympic gold medal when he was 19. Then, when he was 24, he licked Smokin’ Joe Frazier in just two rounds.

One year later in the famed Rumble in the Jungle, he lost his cherished title to a man called Muhammad Ali and it seemed all downhill from there. But F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong: There are second and even third acts in American life.

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Now, a new biopic on Foreman’s life, Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World, is telling the tale.

“Boy, anger and revenge fuelled me to become heavyweight champ of the world for the first time,” the 74-year-old champ recently told NBC News. “And for 10 years, I didn’t box because I lost all my anger.”

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The anger was palatable. Foreman was born into the grinding poverty of Houston’s notorious Fifth Ward in 1949 and boxing was his way out.

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According to Big George’s promo material, the movie takes viewers on the ups and downs of Foreman’s life with a large emphasis on his triumphs and disappointments in the ring.

“I have been literally rescued from the gutter. I was out hiding from the police,” he told NBC. “The next thing you know, I’m in the Job Corps program getting three meals in one day. They built me into what I’ve become.”

The Job Corps opened the door to prizefighting. That’s where he met mentor, trainer and father figure Charles “Doc” Broadus who taught the ring legend how to fight.

Success came quickly. Foreman was just a kid when he won the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

“I wanted to wave that flag so everybody knew where I was from,” Foreman said. “I’ll never forget that, the happiest day of my life as an athlete.”

But that was also the Black Power games, when U.S. track stars gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raised their fists in black gloves during the National Anthem.

Racism was still rife in America, and at the same time, young men were dying daily in Vietnam. Circumstances beyond the young fighter’s control were shaping the narrative of his homecoming.

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“I was even approached, ‘George, how could you wave that flag when the brothers were doing their thing?’” he said. “And I was waving that flag because so many people had helped me, especially veterans.”

And when Foreman entered the pro ranks, cosmic kismet had turned the heavyweight division the glamour zone of all sports. Besides Ali and Frazier, there were greats like Ken Norton, Ernie Shavers, Jerry Quarry, Ron Lyle, Jimmy Young and a cavalcade of others.

On Jan. 22, 1973, in Kingston, Jamaica, Foreman won the heavyweight title by giving Frazier his first loss as a pro. Frazier hit the canvas six times in the first two rounds before it was called.

Then, after the defeat in Zaire in 1974, Foreman pretty much vanished until he retired after losing against Jimmy Young in 1977. But Big George wasn’t quite done.

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For starters, he had a religious epiphany and became an ordained minister. And he learned to fight without anger. In 1994, at age 45, he won the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal heavyweight championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael Moorer.

“I started working with kids to make certain they stay on the right road,” he said, teaching them to never throw “a punch in anger. I taught it so much, I started to believe in it. I went back to boxing, became champ of the world, but I never had one ounce of anger in my life.”

Foreman still follows boxing and likes watching tapes of old Mike Tyson fights.

“Being honest, I’m not a spokesman for boxing. I’m a spokesman for the George Foreman Grill. And I’m a minister full time at the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Foreman said.

Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World, is in theatres now.

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@HunterTOSun

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